GPU Cooler for 9800XT 256mb

[Tobeman]

Zalman VF700-Cu or Arctic Cooling ATI 3 (9800XT 256MB) or other?

Please assist I feel my 9800XT is getting to the end of its lifespan with me, but I love it too much, everything still looks so pretty, so I wanna push some more out of it. Ive never dared overclock mine yet because its idles at 68-70!



If other, please specify

[Davion]

Defenetly, The Arctic Cooling, why ?

Because the Zalman only comes with cheapo Memory heatsinks, and the Artic cooling with good RAM HSP, and i can ensure U the ram on the 9800XT is DDR-2 running VERYYY HOT (got also that card)

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

70 degrees isn't too much for a video card. The RAM thing is true - and clocking the RAM faster will give bigger gains than clocking the GPU.

[Hans Voralberg]

Artic Cooling comes with ramsink ?? Never heard of that. Revision 3 you mean ??

[Tobeman]

50/50 split atm guys, give me a clear decision guys

Thanks for the feedback so far!

[cm_uk]

artic coolingi have it fitted stock with my HIS Exacalibur XD

[Davion]

okay, the Zalman cooles the core a little better ,that's true, but the RAM heatsinks are too small to keep the very hot DDR2 Ram cool on the 9800XT, that's why u better take the Arctic Cooling, it will give you maybe 5Mhz less core, but 10-20Mhz more RAM and it will be much cooler..

[muddyfox470]

I would say the arctic cooler as it blows the hot air directly out of the case, so it helps case cooling a bit too!

Ian

[Smokey21]

and clocking the RAM faster will give bigger gains than clocking the GPU.

Erm no it doesn't.

Get the Arctic Silencer!

[malfunction]

Other - sell the 9800XT and buy something better instead of spending £20 or so trying to extract a bit more performance out of what you've already got?

[Tobeman]

Other - sell the 9800XT and buy something better instead of spending £20 or so trying to extract a bit more performance out of what you've already got?

Forgot to mention, tight budget Plus Im looking to silence my current setup a bit, its not noisy, but its bugging me now after about a year and a half

Current setup is AGP, obviously, and I know this sounds silly because i know the current benefits of PCI-E over AGP are virtually non-existant, but, it feels like im shooting myself in the foot if I was gonna do that because Im already obsolete

Seems like its gonna be the arctic cooler

Keep posting though guys!

[malfunction]

Well if noise is a concern go with the Zalman - you can run the fan at 5V at which point it's supposed to be near enough totally silent... If the GFX card cooler is the noisiest thing in your PC you're doing pretty well already though Keep in mind that you ought to get around £100 for the 9800XT so upgrading might not be that expensive.

Oh - and before someone else says it - it's always obsolete as soon as you buy it... But yes, I know what you mean. My current theory is that I'm waiting for the dual core CPUs before I upgrade again but I doubt I'll hold out that long (at least not with my current HDDs)

What else have you got in your PC?

[Tobeman]

Well if noise is a concern go with the Zalman - you can run the fan at 5V at which point it's supposed to be near enough totally silent... If the GFX card cooler is the noisiest thing in your PC you're doing pretty well already though Keep in mind that you ought to get around £100 for the 9800XT so upgrading might not be that expensive.

Oh - and before someone else says it - it's always obsolete as soon as you buy it... But yes, I know what you mean. My current theory is that I'm waiting for the dual core CPUs before I upgrade again but I doubt I'll hold out that long (at least not with my current HDDs)

What else have you got in your PC?

That creates noise? Well, PSU (no clue what brand it is, got this rig put together by a local shop, I originally had an Antec blue PSU spec'd but they said this 350w performs just as well as a 450w, Im surprised at how well it performs actually, considering the number of devices connected to it ), CPU HSF (cheap coolermaster job) and some tiny little blue LED fan on my motherboard (chipset cooler?), which doesnt sound surprisingly loud, its not that whiny so thats not the main cause. Listening to it carefully the sound reverberates, kinda, and you can hear fans 'beneath' that sound (ie the other sound is more prominant)

Its a Coolermaster Wave Master case, so thats gonna echo it for starters, there is a front in-take fan, and there might be an exhaust too. Last time I looked in the case it seemed that the front intake wasnt going to be easy to take out

[malfunction]

Lots of options really... I'm sure you've seen the Zalman 7000 / 7700 CPU coolers too - they are very quiet on minimum settings. Or pair one of the Thermalright heatsinks with a slow fan. Either option should cool better than a cheap coolermaster HSF. You might want to replace the case fans too - and / or use a fan bus to slow them down. You could also replace the northbridge heatsink (chipset cooler) with a larger passive heatsink. Obviously slower fans (and passive heatsinks) mean higher temperatures. You could also think about sticking some sound deadening material inside the case but again this will increase temperatures.

Oh and check what brand the PSU is - there should be a sticker on one side... If it's a cheapo (especially a q-tec) then you might want to think about replacing it. If not now then at least next time you upgrade.

[Meiapaul]

Its a Coolermaster Wave Master case, so thats gonna echo it for starters, there is a front in-take fan, and there might be an exhaust too. Last time I looked in the case it seemed that the front intake wasnt going to be easy to take out

If you have an allen key which will fit, there is an allen-key screw type thing under the door on the left side...unscrew that and the screw on the bottom of the case and the bottom section will swing open (with some horrible metal scratching noises ) and you'll get access to the two front fans I'm replacing mine with some quieter ones soon, the three case fans make quite a loud noise together

[Tobeman]

Lots of options really... I'm sure you've seen the Zalman 7000 / 7700 CPU coolers too - they are very quiet on minimum settings. Or pair one of the Thermalright heatsinks with a slow fan. Either option should cool better than a cheap coolermaster HSF. You might want to replace the case fans too - and / or use a fan bus to slow them down. You could also replace the northbridge heatsink (chipset cooler) with a larger passive heatsink. Obviously slower fans (and passive heatsinks) mean higher temperatures. You could also think about sticking some sound deadening material inside the case but again this will increase temperatures.

Oh and check what brand the PSU is - there should be a sticker on one side... If it's a cheapo (especially a q-tec) then you might want to think about replacing it. If not now then at least next time you upgrade.

Those ThermalRight beasts look very tempting, Im putting a PC together soon for a friend, he's a silence freak, so I was going to get him one of those paired with an Akasa 120mm fan. If it turns out well on his AMD I might get one for my Intel socket 478 I'll probably use the same fans again on the case. Im not a big fan of this passive cooling, however im not too sure on how hot the nortbridge gets, arent those Zalman 7000/7700s supposed to cool components near by because they are so damn big?

I will investigate the PSU when I get in no doubt, instead of doing all this work I should be getting on with! My first AS Level exam starts in just under 3 weeks

If you have an allen key which will fit, there is an allen-key screw type thing under the door on the left side...unscrew that and the screw on the bottom of the case and the bottom section will swing open (with some horrible metal scratching noises ) and you'll get access to the two front fans I'm replacing mine with some quieter ones soon, the three case fans make quite a loud noise together

So that removes the front of the case? where the power/reset buttons are? Heh thats cool I thought the fans were internal, not 'external' so to speak Im at school and the thought of that metal scratching is still making the hairs on my back stand on end, just like when I feel terracotta pots, ergh, that makes my skin crawl! (Im bizarre, I know, we all have pet hates.. spiders, the bogeyman under the bed, the taxman, mine is terracotta pots )